Metamorphosis

PhotographerSteve Sabella

PrizeHonorable Mention

Entry Description

For Metamorphosis, Sabella pieced together fragmented photographic images taken from multiple perspectives. The artist has likened this meticulous process, the careful re-arranging and twisting of forms, to painting rather than any classical use of photography. In many of these collages, it is difficult to discern any clear direction; there’s no clear sense of up or down. Drawn into these images, one is caught in a dizzying, free-floating condition—disturbing at first, but maybe also offering the promise of endless freedom. Barbed wire, a symbol of physical coercion, here seems to heal the wounds it causes. Similarly, what appears to be a border wall becomes as permeable as its shimmering reflection in the water. Going beyond the boundaries of the photographic image, both to the ancient art of mosaic and to the new world of multimedia, Sabella thus finds a place of his own in today’s acentric world.